Church Attendance

Weekly church attendance in the Irish Republic, which stood at the extraordinarily high level of 91 percent of the population as recently as 1973, dropped to 48 percent in 2001, according to a survey reported in the Irish Times. And the rate is set to sink lower. While 58 percent of those ages 50 to 64 said they went to Mass at least once a week in the latest survey, only 27 percent of those between ages 25 and 34 did. FIRING LEADS TO SUIT To Costco, an employee's eyebrow ring was a violation of the corporation's dress code.

Like a neighborhood of restaurants, the churches of Azalea Park all serve the same area, but offer different styles of worship. Each is trying to keep the regulars coming back while attracting a new crowd. "I believe churches are like restaurants. You wouldn't go back if you didn't like the food, the price or the atmosphere," said Rev. Tony Chance, who became pastor of Azalea Park United Methodist Church in 2007. Just as tastes change, so have the demographics of Azalea Park.

I was reading that church attendance is on the decline in the United States. I can give several reasons for that myself.Saturday night is one reason.Another is the great movies Ted Turner's Superstation shows on cable Sunday mornings during church hours.It's the 10:35 Eastern slot. There are old movies, classic movies, like In Harm's Way, with John Wayne; On the Waterfront, with Marlon Brando, and, a personal favorite, Zulu Dawn, where about six zillion Zulu warriors come running and screaming over a hill and kill Burt Lancaster.

UMATILLA — The projected $4 million building that First Baptist Church of Umatilla will call home will adjoin the church's current 600-seat sanctuary via a corridor. It will house a children's ministry area, including its Sonshine School, adult classrooms, a multipurpose room and a 7,000-square-foot events center. The events center will include a welcome area, kiosks, a refreshment area and will be used for church functions and fellowships as well as wedding receptions and other public social gatherings.

EUSTIS -- Like so many other pastors in churches across America, the Rev. David Gill saw a dramatic increase in attendance at his church in the weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Spirituality suddenly became popular again: People were praying, and packed pews were commonplace. Residents sought solitude and comfort in the words of the clergy. Is that still the case now, six months after the attacks? The answer is no -- but there have been positive changes in the attitudes of longtime church members, local pastors say. At Gill's church, First United Methodist Church of Eustis, families that hadn't been to church in ages suddenly appeared after the attacks.

IN A recent letter to the Sentinel, a writer expressed pride in being an atheist, which of course is a belief. I was reminded of a sure cure for atheism; I witnessed in 1945 this cure.Our ship had 3,600 men. Church services were provided, when possible, for all denominations. While we were in safe waters, probably fewer than 10 percent of the crew attended services. As we headed into the Pacific Theater, closer to enemy ships, planes and submarines, church attendance picked up remarkably.

LONDON -- For sale: One grand 19th century church suitable for development as offices or condos. Asking price of $700,000. The stone Carntyne Old Church in Glasgow, Scotland, is on the market, a sign of the times in secular Europe as church attendance has dwindled. Western Europe has long been seen as more secular and indifferent to Christian faith than the United States, where politics and social debate are often saturated with religious voices. Fewer than 20 percent of people in Western Europe say they go to church twice a month or more.

Dr. James Williamson's assertion in his letter ("Church good for your health?" Thursday, Orlando Sentinel) that studies showing a positive health benefit to church attendance are misleading in their conclusions is disingenuous. No one would suggest that mere attendance at a religious event improves one's health any more than do regular visits to a doctor's office. But I would think that neither a pastor nor a physician would want to suggest that such activities are not beneficial to a person's well-being.

WILL YOU please pass on to syndicated columnist Lewis Grizzard my deep appreciation and gratitude for his column in your paper, ''Why church attendance is off - just listen to those hymns.''I've been a Methodist for 71 years, and loved all those hymns he mentioned in his column. The United Methodist Church labored for many years to update their hymnals, and it has been a disappointment to me and many others who just do not like the new concept.It seems to me they have forgotten the power and uplifting that those old hymns brought to us, and it can happen again if they are included in our Sunday worship services.

The worst may be yet to come for churches and synagogues in the United States as baby boomers move into their empty nest stage, according to new research.Beginning when their children reach their teens, older baby boomers are showing signs of going to church less often. When the kids leave home, the first empty nest boomers are showing an even more dramatic decline in church attendance, according to new research by sociologist David Roozen of Hartford Seminary.Consider also that the boomers' children will be entering their young adult years - a time of experimentation when many leave organized religion - around the height of the empty nest syndrome for their parents.

Dr. James Williamson's assertion in his letter ("Church good for your health?" Thursday, Orlando Sentinel) that studies showing a positive health benefit to church attendance are misleading in their conclusions is disingenuous. No one would suggest that mere attendance at a religious event improves one's health any more than do regular visits to a doctor's office. But I would think that neither a pastor nor a physician would want to suggest that such activities are not beneficial to a person's well-being.

LONDON -- For sale: One grand 19th century church suitable for development as offices or condos. Asking price of $700,000. The stone Carntyne Old Church in Glasgow, Scotland, is on the market, a sign of the times in secular Europe as church attendance has dwindled. Western Europe has long been seen as more secular and indifferent to Christian faith than the United States, where politics and social debate are often saturated with religious voices. Fewer than 20 percent of people in Western Europe say they go to church twice a month or more.

ATLANTA -- A major study on church growth discovered that thriving congregations tended to be multiracial, embraced vibrant worship services and avoided major conflict. The "FACTs on Growth" report, based on a 2005 survey of 900 congregations, is the culmination of a five-year study that attempts to answer why some congregations grow and others decline. The findings, recently released by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, challenges the conventional wisdom that only conservative suburban congregations are growing.

The circumstances are different, but the feelings are the same. Four years ago, a pall hung over the nation after terrorists launched attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and over Pennsylvania. Many were hopeless and fearful, angry and confused. Many wondered why God would allow such a tragedy . Then, it was hard to imagine any event devastating enough to match or exceed the 9-11 attacks. Hurricane Katrina, however, has changed all that. The pall has returned with a vengeance.

EUSTIS -- Theater seats aren't the only things the Hollywood blockbuster film The Passion of the Christ is filling up these days. Some local pastors are crediting Mel Gibson's depiction of the last 12 hours of Jesus' life with filling some of their church pews as well. "The Sunday it debuted, we had twice as many visitors as we normally do," said the Rev. David Gill, senior pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Eustis. "The film has caused a lot of people to ask questions and look at their own lives."

CLERMONT - Every Sunday, when the Rev. Rick Van Wagner looks out over his congregation, he see lots of new faces scattered among the familiar ones. In the past 10 months alone, Family Christian Center has quadrupled in size, outgrowing the 7,500-square-foot church it built less than a year ago. Now, the church must add an unprecedented fourth worship service to keep up with the demand, and is considering adding a fifth. Church attendance usually drops during summer, but at the nondenominational church it has soared well beyond 700 parishioners each week.

Moral values are replacing money as a key predictor of a person's vote. For decades, the best way to predict peoples' voting behavior -- other than their race, which remains the most reliable indicator -- was their income and educational background. It used to be the more money or education people had, the more they voted Republican. No longer. How often one attends religious services has replaced money, schooling, age and sex as the best way to predict a person's vote. The data clearly suggests that among white voters, the more often you go to church, the more likely you are to consider yourself conservative; the more you go to church, the more you worry about an expanding role for government.

Church attendance drops to 1940 lowWeekly attendance at houses of worship has dipped to its lowest level since 1940, according to a report by the Princeton Religion Research Center based on a new Gallup Poll. In 1996, 38 percent of U.S. adults said they had attended a church or synagogue in a given week. In 1995, 43 percent of Americans said they attended church weekly. The all-time low for church attendance was recorded in 1940, when just 37 percent said they had attended a house of worship.

Weekly church attendance in the Irish Republic, which stood at the extraordinarily high level of 91 percent of the population as recently as 1973, dropped to 48 percent in 2001, according to a survey reported in the Irish Times. And the rate is set to sink lower. While 58 percent of those ages 50 to 64 said they went to Mass at least once a week in the latest survey, only 27 percent of those between ages 25 and 34 did. FIRING LEADS TO SUIT To Costco, an employee's eyebrow ring was a violation of the corporation's dress code.

In his Religion & Ethics column on Oct 5, Tom Ehrich referred to his family's "weekly decision: Do we go to church?" That question reminded me of a recent conversation with my 11-year-old daughter. I had asked my daughter if she knew why some of our church members do not attend services regularly. She replied that she did not. I explained that it could be because each and every Sunday they ask themselves, "Do we go to church?" My daughter was surprised to learn that I never ask myself whether I am going to church.